Chime in-Gluten Free and/or Caseine Free Meals that Freeze Well

Did ya miss me? Huh, huh, did ya?

Just in case you’ve been dying to know where I’ve gone… here I am in all my baby glory.

It’s no wonder I haven’t had time for two blogs. To keep up with the most recent events visit Blog Schmog.

As most of you know cooking is not my favorite thing to do but since the majority of our large family has to eat gluten free, some need dairy free and one needs several other dietary considerations, I don’t get out of it often. EXCEPT when my Hubby and favorite chef gets into the kitchen. I’m so blessed!

So, I posted the following question on a gluten free group I am a part of and got a ton of feedback. Would you like to add your two cents? We can keep this list going over the years and hopefully it will be a good resource for others as well.

Okay everyone, desperate times call for desperate measures.

The baby should be coming in less than five weeks and we’ve eaten up all the freezer meals I made in advance.

That’s what happens with six people in the house already!

Needless to say I’m tired of the same ol’ same ol’.

So, your mission is to post or link your all time favorite freezer meals.

Here are some of the ideas we have already come up with.

• seasoned taco meat (not pre packaged seasoning/most has gluten)
• broth for soups (noodle soup with easy homemade GF noodles, veggie soup, egg drop, chicken and rice, onion soup, beef stew with rice or potatoes)
• cooked chicken
• freeze rice for meals or breakfast (with cinnamon/brown sugar)
• pot roast
• season meat while fresh and freeze to put into a crock pot with carrots and potatoes
• meat loaf
• meat balls
• lasagna or no-noodle lasagna (one of my most popular recipes)
• muffins (recipe linked below)
• pancakes
• mushroom soup to add to casseroles. If you like it creamy make a roux and add the soup with the liquid.

EDITED TO ADD:

• burrito casserole (layer anything you would have in a burrito with corn tortilla’s and tomato sauce on top)
• Gluten Free Cranberry Rice Bran Muffins

The Nourishing Gourmet had a similar post and tons of great ideas too.

I’m a Reading Rainbow

I did finally get to read to my neighbor.  It was terrifying and exhilarating at the same time.

My friend whom I met with in regard to God’s harebrained plan about reading to her husband the doctor, was glad to see me and optimistic about our arrangement.  Unfortunately her husband had fallen asleep and she was not able to readily wake him so instead of introducing us she left me with her eleven year old daughter while taking her other kids to youth group.

Waiting made my anxiety worse.  My husband had asked earlier in the day if I was nervous and at that time I was not, even when I showed up I was not but sitting there I began to entertain my reservations.

What will he think of this crazy plan?  Will he think I intend to evangelize him without compassion.  I bet he is wondering if whatever I have planned will allow him yet another chance to sleep or let his thoughts wander.

I chatted with my heart in my throat, nervous about what to do if he woke.  At last we heard him coughing in the other room and that darling little girl got up and ran into his room exclaiming, “Good morning, sleeping beauty!”

It was actually six at night!

“Do you wanna meet a new friend?” she exclaimed and beckoned with her hand for me to enter.

Thank you Lord! 

I had been so nervous about how to approach him and yet this lovely little girl had taking away all tension with her plucky introduction.

Lord, help me not to talk down to him, help my conversation to be comfortable and respectful.  Lord give me the right words so that I don’t pity him but that your love shows through me and your hope is evident without my having to preach at him.  Jane and I want so badly for him to learn to trust you, help me to understand your timing.

She left us alone and I sat beside his bed and began to explain why I had chosen the book that I did.  Despite the fact that God clearly directed me to read House, by Ted Dekker and Frank Peretti, I had many other reasons for agreeing with Him and I shared those. 🙂

As I spoke I took in a couple quick glances at the pictures above the bed, they were of healthier times for the doctor and I was shocked at the stark difference.  Though he had thick cotton white hair even then, it was silky and bright .  Now his hair was a coarse gray mat against his head.  He had been a big man with a broad inviting smile.  Now, emaciated and limp, his smile ghoulish, his head appearing too large on his skeleton frame.  My heart ached.

I opened my book and read stopping now and again to take a sip of water and allow him to cough.

We finished one chapter and I paused to talk a little about myself.  I told him briefly about each of my kids and that I felt blessed to know his family.  His daughter came in to check on us and I took another drink of my water while conversing with her.

I read another chapter and twice I made major mistakes that sent us both into laughter.  His eyes sparkled and he tried to laugh but it caused a coughing fit.  I winced at the pain it seemed to cause him as he gagged and sputtered.  I could not believe that I was sitting there, next to a man who was so incapacitated and yet the Lord was allowing us to fellowship.  I was not disturbed by the monitors and wheelchair.  My mind was filled with compassion and my heart longed only for him to know my Jesus and accept the promise of complete healing whether on earth or in heaven.

I read a total of three chapters and in the third had another laugh fumbling around with my voice attempting to recreate a “booming” male voice.

Though I had seen the sparkle in his eye and thought I made him laugh it was hard to be sure how he was taking it until his daughter ran to her mother the minute she arrived and exclaimed “He was so into it, I haven’t seen him that alert!”

My reservations were wiped away and the Lord graciously confirmed that His thoughts are completely different from ours…and His ways are far beyond anything we can imagine.

I read again soon and will be sure to keep you updated.

“My thoughts are completely different from yours,” says the Lord.  “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.  For just as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your way and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”

“The rain and snow come down from the heavens and stay on the ground to water the earth.  They cause the grain to grow producing seed for the farmer and bread for the hungry.  It is the same with my word.  I send it out and it always produces fruit.  It will accomplish all I want it to and it will prosper everywhere I send it.  You will live in joy and peace.  The mountains and hills will burst into song, and the trees of the field will clap their hands!  Where once briers grew, myrtles will sprout up.  This miracle will bring great honor to the Lord’s name; it will be an everlasting sign of his power and love.”

Isaiah 55:8-13

I had lunch with the man of my dreams!

Today I had lunch with the man of my dreams.

I sat side by side with a man who absolutely sets my heart aflutter.

Let me see if I can begin to do him justice.

He is stocky yet athletic and tends to dress a bit grunge. Remember that? He has the most incredibly blue eyes you have ever seen.  Looking into them is a dream, I can hardly keep myself contained when I peer into those glassy blues  with such innocence and love.  Not to mention he has flawless skin with a smattering of freckles across his cheeks that only serve to add to his sunny countenance.

The two of us have a bit of a language barrier.  I have to listen hard to understand what he wants to portray to me but words do not have to pass between us for kindred hearts to speak.  He is an open book and a man after God’s own heart.  The humblest of the humble, a true member of the kingdom of Christ.

We ate the simplest of meals but my joy has rarely been so complete.  He requested pb&j and couldn’t be persuaded otherwise.  I ate the same and watched in wonder as he licked his fingers, finishing every morsel.  No meal with this man would be complete without a glass of juice and a swipe of the hands down the front of his recently clean-ish shirt.

Who is it?

Certainly not the ONLY man of my dreams.

None other than…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 My man, aka Bubba. 

No his eyes aren’t quite that blue but I had fun editing since I rarely have time for such extravagance!

What’s a Mom to DO?

I have a dilemma.  There is a neighbor with an eight year old son who is a whirlwind, to put it nicely.  Usually I tend to avoid allowing my boys to spend time with kids that I don’t want them picking up bad habits from, but this boys happens to be the son of our 4-H leader and a good friend of mine. Sigh!

Tonight is the kickoff bbq and I am terrified that my boys, being younger than he is, will come home after spending an hour or so with this kid and be saying things like “Oh god!” and acting maniacal.  Not to mention that for this family money is not an object and they have every toy known to man including all the video game systems and state of the art computer equipment. 

At our house, partly out of necessity ;), we emphasise non-monetary contentment and I struggle big time with Thing Two and his addictive nature toward video games.  That amounts to their dad’s old Nintendo on rare occasions and three days a week he is allowed to earn time at a free online game where a quad goes forward and backward on a two dimensional track.  So nothing fancy at all.

I guess what I’m wondering is how do I prepare them for time with this boy since it is not possible to keep them segregated from every ornery boy on the planet!  I’m sure mine can come up with lots of their own trouble too.

Do I sit them down and have a “talk” about not conforming to other’s standards?

Do I prepare them for the sorts of thing he might say (and that I’ve heard him say) and mention how his disrespect of his mother will not be tolerated by me?

I truly love this family and I dont’ want my boys going in saying, “My mom said….”  But I love my boys more and I want to prepare them in the most Godly but not condescending way. 

Did that make any sense at all?

What are your thoughts?

Don’t you think my “jail” pictures are appropriate?  Hee hee!

Window on the World

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Window on the World: When We Pray God Works

The boys and I absolutely love this missions minded textbook.  It was recommended by a blogger friend and is a must have! Thanks Karen!

Each two page spread gives you a thorough look into a different people group of the world, mostly through the eyes of a child in that nation.  It details struggles and successes in reaching that group for Christ and has a section on how you can pray.  My boys practically fight over the prayer requests each day.  They love to hear the stories about boys and girls in other countries and even my two year old is learning.

When Matt came home from work the other day, a good 5hrs after we read about how God healed Niki in Albania and learned to say hello in Albanian, Bubba hollered “Tungjatjeta (toon-jat-yeta) Dad!”

Portraits of Fun-Lookin Back on the Past Year

These are a few of my favorite things!

Here is Thing One and his look alike pumpkin…

Here is Thing One’s Portrait of his baby sister (now one year old-my how the time flies) and I on her 1 week birthday…

Here are three of my favorite things; leaves, the color green and my little buddy “Bubba”…

And here is one of my favorite pictures of Thing Two. He and his older brother got these headlamps for their birthday and while Grammy and Papa were visiting he disappeared. No one could find him anywhere, we were calling and looking, trying not to panic. Finally after a good half hour his Grammy found him asleep with the headlamp on under the guest bed! Gotta love the boy…

More Piggies!

Pee Wee finally has long enough hair for pig tails!  This could get out of hand really fast! 🙂

She is also big enough to sneak off and eat a bowl full of cat food.  Ha ha, what fun!

Gotta go for now.

TGIF

Look to the Rock

Isaiah 51:1 says “…look to the Rock from which you were cut, the quarry from which you were hewn.”

I was thinking about that verse and our discussions on names and I had an epiphany….  what do God’s names mean and what are  they all?

So I went on a little hunt.  Do you know that our English translation of the Bible is quite limited in understanding of His names.  What I mean is that God’s names are so deep and rich yet in our language there is no comparrison to the original Hebrew. 

Where we use “Lord” there are many many different versions of the name Jehovah (YHWH or simply the 4 letters) which is God’s covenant name or the name He promised.  It means that he is the God who continually reveals himself to us.  Add it to another name and it literally means he will reveal himself to be as such…. Example; there is Jehovah Raah, which means shepherd, Jehovah Nissi meaning banner or refuge and carries with it a hope that can’t be understood in just one word of the English language.  Since Jehovah preceeds each of the names they literally mean, God who reveals himself to be our shepherd, or the God who will show us He is our hope!

I’m not doing all the work for you! 🙂  Find out for yourself who God want’s to reveal that He is for you today!

Here are a couple few 🙂 websites I found to help you study.

Blue Letter Bible

Hebrew Christians

Bible Gateway

Bokey or Bokoo, it’s Bokeh

Well I was sitting here, sipping an overly sweet cup of coffee and eating a handful of chocolate chips, feeling sorry for myself having woke up early this morning to dogs barking and my two middle boys screaming at eachother and throwing cars.  Ugh!  I “wandered” over to check out some photo tips at Pioneer Woman and Mizz Booshay had published a challenge.  Hey, maybe I’ll give it a shot said I!  So, crawling out of my funk here is my attempt at capturing fall with bokeh using my little point and shoot camera. 

So what is bokeh you ask?  Beats me!  Okay so I don’t know the technical explination but I like what Jennifer said, “bokeh is that fuzzy dreaminess” in the background.

In my opinion, fall is the best season of all and it is more than just changing leaves, although I love that too, it is about texture…

and harvesting strange ears of crossbred corn (Oops!)…

and the wonder in a childs eyes (does this one count-only a little bokeh)…

and of course the colors…

All pics are straight out of my little point and shoot camera except the one of Bubba, I cropped it to eliminate a nice shot of his runny nose, guess that’s fall too maybe I should have left it! That was fun, thanks for the challenge, I’m temporarily out of my funk!

On the Subject of Our Value in Christ

 I have very little to say about this book but freakin’ awesome and INSANE pretty much sums it up.  You must know that I hate modern romance books but Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers (an allegory of the book of Hosea) ROCKED MY WORLD! It was loaned to me and I opened it reluctantly but finished it in 3 sittings …and I bought my own copy AFTER reading it!

Among my favorite authors, C.S. Lewis and Frank Peretti, Francine Rivers finds good company!